


DELICACY

by OnlyOneWoman



Series: Neighbours & Flatmates [6]
Category: Black Sails
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Confusion, Couch Cuddles, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Escort Service, F/F, F/M, Father-Daughter Relationship, Father-Son Relationship, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Illnesses, M/M, Multi, Neighbors, Sexual Abuse, Social Anxiety, Threesome - F/M/M, Unresolved Emotional Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-21
Updated: 2016-09-21
Packaged: 2018-08-16 10:48:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8099272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnlyOneWoman/pseuds/OnlyOneWoman
Summary: This is the sixth part of a new piece with A LOT of Black Sails characters in modern time. I have some chapters done already, but I'm really not sure how it will end up. Some characters will be closer to the real Black Sails personalities, while I've taken some liberties with others. We will get to know florists, religious nuts, university teachers and a psychologist living in the same house in Southampton. Some characters will be blood relatives, some will be lovers, a lot of them are neighbours and even though Billy Bones is the main character, there will be a lot of side stories to his.I'm not yet clear with all the relationships - some of them have confused feelings - so we'll just see where it goes.





	1. Mostly Work And A Little Fun (Wednesday Morning/Lunch)

”This is _absurd_!”  
  
Thomas Hamilton was not an ordinary economist. Not only because he lived in threeway relationship with his wife and, on paper not legal, husband, but mostly due to the fact that a stock market crash didn’t upset him half as much as cutbacks on public art teaching. Miranda poured another cup of tea and gave her husband a kiss.  
  
”What is it this time, dear?”  
”What it always is. A narrowminded business sector that once again manage to pursuade our politicians that art teaching is an unnecessary luxuary our children shouldn’t be provided with unless they have really wealthy parents! They want to cut the number of music and dance teachers with a third and suggests that borrowing music instruments and the ballet shoe funding for special talented kids should be cut out completely!”  
”Why are you surprised, Thomas? Art is always the first thing they want to cut and I doubt they’d get through with it. People here are way too proud of _The Point_ and the university music program, for the politics to dare to make too many cuts. No matter how many narrowminded business buffoons that start to cry and whine.”  
”Who’s whining?”  
  
James, always the last one to crawl out of bed, came out in his bathrobe and put the coffee on. He was the only one drinking coffee first thing in the morning. He gave his wife and husband a kiss and started to spread peanut butter on a toast. Thomas sighed.  
  
”Another proposal from the business sector.”  
”And they want to raise the art teachers salaries, introduce half an hour of classical music on school lunch breaks with live orchestras and make my wife and husband heads of the entire education sector. I get it.”  
  
Miranda choked a laughter. James was, author or not, far less of an idealist than Thomas and when he had a grumpy day, he had little patient with his husband being upset for things no one should be surprised of. Thomas glared at their redhaired husband and received a teasing kiss on his head in return.  
  
”One day, Thomas, you’ll stop getting surprised about the world and then I know it’s time to send you to therapy.”  
”I can’t understand how you can go around not caring about these things, James. You’re an author, for Gods sake.”  
”Just because I’m not getting emotional about it, doesn’t mean I don’t care, my love. Could you pass the jam? By the way, I’m off to the Flower Rangers later. I met Charles the other day and he mentioned they’d get a delivery of lilies today they haven’t sold before.”  
”That’s really sweet of you, love. Now when we’re on it, maybe we should by John a flower as well.”  
”John? John who?”  
”Our neighbour, of course!”  
”Oh, the arsonist and chicken vandal? He’ll just end up killing the flowers by water them to death or try to dry them in the oven.”  
  
Thomas gave Miranda an exasperated look and she put her cup down.  
  
”Seriously, James… If you’re so concearned about chickens, maybe you should stop eating their corpses yourself.”  
”My glacing honours them.”  
”One of my students are a vegan, if I remember it correctly. A really bright young lady who’ll graduate with top degrees and is heading for a career as a translator. I’m really fond of her and I’m thinking of inviting her for dinner when the course is finished. It would be very interesting to hear an ethical discussion about the honoring in chicken glacing between the two of you.”  
  
James just glared at his wife and Thomas and Miranda exchanged a smile. The senior lecturer in English literature reached out her cup to her grumpy husband.  
  
”Would you mind pouring me some more tea, dear? And don’t forget the lilies. One for me and one for John Silver. I’ll bring it over tomorrow. After all, he’s our new neighbour.”  
  
She took the paper from Thomas and browsed to the comics. Her blonde husband smiled a little at his ginger husband, shaking his head. James reached for his husbands hand and stroke it gently while pouring another cup for his wife. Apparently, the discussion was over.  
  
***  
  
”So I suggest that we, in order to increase our profit in the next quarter…”  
  
Sometimes Eleanor Guthrie got ridiculously proud of herself. Like when she didn’t ask her aunts and cousins to go fuck themselves whenever they asked her about the children she never wanted to have and therefore didn’t give birth to or even conceived in the first place. Or when another stupid customer tried to turn a business dinner into a date and she didn’t laugh him right up in his face. Or, like now, when she managed to look interested while listening to Mr. Hornigolds mansplaining speech about how to make more fucking money.  
  
Usually, Eleanor preferred the company of men to the company of women, with some exceptions. As a daughter to an unsuccessful lawyer, pathetic women chaser of a father and a self-pitying gold digger of a mother, Eleanor began to show cynical tendencies around the age of five, to make a fully developement into a despiser in her early teens. The day a redhaired hag had rung on their doorbell in the middle of dinner, shoving a skinny, moody fourteen year old girl inside with the words ”she’s your responsible now, Richard” and then left, the burgeoning cynism went in full blossom.  
  
Clearly, men could just fuck around, having kids all over the world as if they’d never heard of condoms and women seemed to shut up about babies until they didn’t feel like having them anymore. The moment Anne Bonny stepped inside her home, Eleanor made up her mind: no kids.  
  
Of course, everyone in her family had said she’d change her mind eventually, so the day Eleanor went through her long longed for sterilization she sent picturesof herself, smiling in her hospital bed surrounded by flowers and gratulation cards from friends. After that, her mother cut off contact – no loss – and her father finally realised that his daughter was to be taken seriously, and with no kids to look after and her great ambition and mind for business, she’d be best successor for the company Richard could’ve wished for. Eventually, he thought, Anne would give him grandchildren and Eleanor had a hard time hiding her malicious-joy when Anne declared that ”no fucking poop monsters” were coming out of her pussy ever.  
  
”Miss Guthrie? Miss Guthrie!”  
”Oh, sorry… What?”  
  
Mr. Scott, the vice president and Eleanors ”living clock, calendar and bullshit filter” as he used to call himself for good reasons, gave her a demanding look suggesting she should come up with an answer that didn’t make their mansplaining accounts manager feel completely ignored. Eleanor managed to put her most self-pitying smile on.  
  
”I’m so sorry, Mr. Hornigold, I’m about the get another migraine attack and I just lost all focus. Please excuse me, I didn’t mean to appear rude.”  
”Oh… of course not, Miss Guthrie, no offense taken. Maybe you’d prefer to postpone the meeting?”  
”No, I’m fine, really. I can manage. Would you be so kind to take it from the beginning? About the suggestions for increasing profits.”  
”Of course. Since the company…”  
  
She listened to the bullshit with a polite face and encouraging nods in the right places. And the pride she felt for not just rise up, drop a smelling fart and leave this bullshit meeting was increasing by every second.  
  
***  
  
”I’m so glad you dropped by. Coffee?”  
”Oh yes, lot’s of it. I slept over and forgot breakfast, so I brought sandwiches. And crisps. And donuts.”  
”You’re an angel, Elle. How do you like this?”  
  
Max hold out a stunning satin dress, bone white with sleeves entirely in lace and pearl buttons in the back. Eleanor nodded.  
  
”It’s really beautiful. Especially the pearls.”  
”Yes, I’m a little tired of all theses embroyderies I’ve made lately, so pearls are nice for a change.”  
”Who’s the lucky bride?”  
”Some knocked up bitch in her twenties, pretending her relationship will last if her useless scumbag of a boyfriend pay for a dress taken from a Disney movie.”  
  
Eleanor smiled as Max put away the dress and they sat down in the small pentry in the shop, castigating their stupid costumers and stupid people in general. Being a highly intelligent person in a society that premiered stupidity among both sexes and encouraged women to hide their intelligence and men to hide their emotions was enough to make a mass murderer out of any person with functioning brains. Max took a grab of crisps.  
  
”At least you don’t have stupid tenantry.”  
”If you don’t count my useless half sister.”  
”You know I fuck her, Elle.”  
”And I seriously can’t understand why.”  
”She’s getting her life together really well and hasn’t touched either drugs or alcohol in two years now. You should be proud of her.”  
  
Eleanor sighed.  
  
”Of course I’m proud of her, Max. And I really don’t mind if you’re fucking her, you know that. But I’m tired of keeping everones shit together. If it’s not the clients, it’s my employees. If it’s not my employees, it’s my co-workers and if it’s not my co-workers it’s my pathetic excuse for a father, screwing around like a goat and pretending like Anne’s been doing just fine and magically stopped using crack all on her own.”  
”You know Anne doesn’t look at it that way.”  
”I know, but it still pisses me off, especially since our dear father doesn’t even care about her except when she succeeds. Which goes for both of us.”  
”How many in our house actually have fathers of the year?”  
”Charles?”  
  
They both laughed and Eleanor shook her head.  
  
”He’s a nice guy, you know. I feel sorry for him, having that ridiculous old bear calling on him and never even stay for dinner.”  
”Are you sure of that?”  
”Pretty sure. Everytime I’ve seen him in the house, he never stays for more than twenty minutes.”  
”Oh, you’ve kept time on Charles Vane’s visits? Bad, _bad_ landlord.”  
”Shut up and eat, or I’ll raise your rent.”  
  
Max just smiled and licked the crisp grease from her fingers. The slight blush on Eleanor’s cheeks told her everything she needed to know.


	2. Fatigue (Wednesday Afternoon/Night)

”You should’ve been more careful, especially in your… profession.”  
”I know.”  
”I’ll make a prescription for antibiotics and I really hope you understand the importance of taking some time off.”  
  
_Because a whore would be too stupid to figure that one out by himself._ John Silver didn’t need to hear it out loud to understand it was exactly what the doctor meant. John took the prescription and headed back out. Great. Now he had to call in sick for many weeks, and all because of that one sick bloke who didn’t understand the importance of condoms or consent.  
  
Rape. It was definately a rape, John didn’t even try to deny it to himself. He’d even told the doctor, which actually was the first time he’d admitted anything like that to anyone. You should’ve been more careful… _Because if you’re stupid enough to work as a whore, you should count on it._ He hadn’t said it, but he just as well might have. The disgust wasn’t new to John by any account, but it always made him feel gross and contagious. He wasn’t in the least surprised that the doctor had used extra rubbing alcohol before John had even left. A whore wasn’t a patient you had to waste any delicacy on.  
  
The fact that it didn’t show any symptoms at first, had made it possible for John to have two more clients before the fever and scorch made clear that something wasn’t right. Now, as he’d fetched his antibiotics, some painkillers and a little food and called in sick to Mrs. Mapleton for about three weeks until he’d be sure of not being contagious anymore, he wanted nothing but to head back home and crash. Mrs. Mapleton had been furious, of course, but at least she put a little blame on that bastard of a punter who didn’t give a shit about the contract.  
  
There was no point in reporting him, no one believed a whore and most definately not a male whore, but at the very least Mrs. Mapleton would give John a loan for the rent and a little food.  After all, he was  popular among several reliable clients and that gave some security. Not much, but John wasn’t used to security and that, he thought, at least made him more capable of handling setbacks quite well without whining and bitching about it. If there was one good thing coming out of this shit, it would be that he didn’t have to be around any disgusting punters for a time. And with or without gonorrhea, he needed a break ’cause he really was pretty sore.  
  
***  
  
”I’m sorry we had to postpone it.”  
”No problem, really. Had stuff to do anyway.”  
”Some new plants?”  
  
Charles was grateful he had his back to his dad. He gritted his teeth and took out the meatloaf. Blackbeard, as Edward Teach was called by his fellow captain collegues, wasn’t in the least interested in his son’s work. In fact, he despised it, and he didn’t even have the decency to hide it. Charles put the meatloaf, the potatos and the cream sauce on the table.  
  
”Help yourself. As a matter of fact, we had a new species of lilies delivered today. Were sold out before tea time.”  
”So you’ve been surrounded by women the whole day.”  
”And I’m still not having a date. Imagine that.”  
  
He snubbed him, Charles was very aware of that, but this was so fucking tiresome. Maybe he should text Billy and ask him to come down and just make out with Charles in front of Edward. Hell, why not let Billy pin Charles to the kitchen wall and use the cream sauce as a lubricant. At least that would give his dad something new to whine about. Edward filled his plate and began to eat.  
  
”I must say, you’re a damn good cook.”  
”Thanks, I know. How are things at the dock?”  
  
Not that Charles gave a flying fuck, but talking about boats let him off the hook. If he was to miss out on catching a glimpse of Eleanor Guthrie on the balcony tonight, at least he didn’t want to spend the dinner talking about his inability to get a date. If his dad found out that Charles had serious thoughts on getting therapy for social anxiety, he’d never hear the end of it.  
  
***  
  
”How was your date?”  
”It wasn’t a date, really.”  
”No? You didn’t hold up the door or pulled out the chair?”  
”No, he did.”  
  
Ben’s wide grin told Billy he should’ve kept silent about it. John Silver was handsome and funny and he knew it. Usually it took more than a little charming by the book to get Billy interested and he figured it was John’s lack of obtrusion that appealed to him. But it wasn’t a date.  
  
It had been a quite tiresome day and Billy felt unusually on edge. He’d had trouble sleeping after the dinner with John. Not that he’d felt bad or anything, but for some reason he couldn’t get to rest properly. And then the day had been very busy with engravings of a confirmation gift, a silver cup for a christening and several rings ordered for weddings and engagements. It was well over eight before he locked up the smitty and headed back home. Thankfully, Ben had made lasagna and saved a big portion on the stove for him. Billy’d swallowed it in minutes and then collapsed on the sofa.  
  
”What are you watching?”  
”CSI Cyber and I can’t come up with any reason why. It’s so bad it made me loose all of my muscle power, and I didn’t even have much to begin with. I think it’s paralysing me. Can’t even move to turn it off.”  
”Running around a lot today?”  
”Uh-huh. Deliveries, deliveries and a little more deliveries. And you? You’re later than usual.”  
”People make too many babies and get engaged too much… Fuck, I forgot water!”  
”Billy?”  
”What?!”  
”You’re crying…”  
  
There were times when it was frustrating to share a flat with Ben, but mostly it was good. Very good. Especially when you started to cry without even noticing it, and had absolutely no idea why. Billy buried his face against Ben’s shoulder and his flatmate kept watching the lousy TV show while stroking his back. Ben certainly didn’t know all his secrets and fact was they weren’t very close when it came to share really personal stuff, but there was a mutual understanding between them to be there for each other when needed. And for some fucking reason Billy needed to cry like a baby on his shoulder. When he finally stopped, Ben gave him a shallow kiss on his hair.  
  
”You’ve been tense to and fro ever since John moved in, Billy. Am I wrong or is it something with him that bothers you?”  
”Of course it isn’t. I don’t even know him!”  
”Jesus, Billy… I was only asking and you can’t blame me for that, really. It’s not like you to come home from work and cry in your plate, you know.”  
”It’s nothing, really. I don’t know why I’m like this, alright?”  
”Okay, okay… I wont pester you about it, but at least admit you’d be a little worried too if I acted like this.”  
”Probably, yeah. But I don’t want to talk about it. There’s nothing to talk about, really. I’m just tired and it has nothing to do with John Silver.”  
”Good. I’ll make breakfast and dinner for the rest of the week.”  
”Why?”  
”Because the last time you were this tired, you lived on breadrolls and microwave pizza for two weeks.”  
”When did that happened?”  
”Early December, so it’s not even five months ago.”  
”I’d almost forgot about that…”  
”Spring engagements, confirmation time, the whole fucking wedding season, a lot of babies in the autumn and then christmas gifts. You were practically a zombie by second Advent Sunday.”  
”Fuck… How do you even remember such things?”  
”Because I live with you, stupid.”  
”We should ban weddings. And engagements and babies. Seriously, we’re an overpopulated planet already… People need to stop fucking so much!”  
”Yeah, well… at least people engaging in straight sex need to use better contraception.”  
”And stop christening the little bastards, since they’re not even christians.”  
”And stop getting married, since most of them will end up getting divorced anyway. If people just stop with all these things, you’ll never work overtime again. In fact, I think you’ll never work again. At least not with silver.”  
”I knew there was a reverse side to it. It sounded too good to be true.”  
  
Billy felt better now. Very tired, but otherwise good. But going to bed all alone wasn’t appealing at all. Usually he didn’t sleep well after an outburst like this. Not on his own. He nuzzled his face into Ben’s chest and squeezed his hand a little.  
  
”Can we sleep together tonight? Don’t wanna be alone right now…”  
”Of course.”  
  
Sleeping next to Ben, oddly made him feel safe. As if he had something to actually be afraid of. About twenty minutes later, Billy snuggled in next to his flatmate in his bed, nestled in the smaller man’s arms like a skittish kid. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The "Neighbours & Flatmate" series is divided in different parts instead of only chapters, to make it a little easier for me to sort all the different stories out. To be clear: every part is linked, they're posted in chronological timeline and they're not made to be read as separate stories.


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